Trump supporters and counter-protesters arrived hours before the president’s scheduled speech at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix. “Bikers for Trump” said on Facebook, “We need our bikers to show up and keep people safe.”

Anti-Trump demonstrators and Trump supporters had a heated exchange outside the Phoenix Convention Center on Aug. 22, 2017. Supporters lined up hours before President Trump was scheduled to speak in downtown Phoenix.

President Donald Trump was scheduled to speak at the Phoenix Convention Center in downtown Phoenix on Aug. 22, 2017. Supporters lined up outside the convention center hours before the president arrived.

PHOENIX — What had largely been a peaceful rally near the Phoenix Convention Center for President Trump’s speech Tuesday night turned combustible afterward, with police deploying pepper spray and stun grenades to disperse the large crowd.

Phoenix police in a statement said, “People in the crowd have begun throwing rocks and bottles at police. They also dispersed some gas in the area.”

Police said they responded with pepper balls and pepper spray to disperse the crowd.

One eyewitness said he saw water bottles thrown at police while other protesters said they saw no provacation.

Kylee Whiteagle, 19, Phoenix, said demonstrators were peacefully protesting in front of the convention center.

“Police started throwing tear gas and pepper-spray pellets and flash bombs to basically make us run away,” she said.

At least a dozen protest groups had melded together outside the center in downtown Phoenix throughout the afternoon and evening under a common cause to oppose the president’s policies.

The Phoenix Fire Department reported 26 heat-related calls, with two people transported to hospitals for further evaluation.

Hundreds of people met at Civic Space Park near Arizona State University’s downtown campus before walking to a protest at the Herberger Theater Center near the Trump rally venue.

Some wore Bernie Sanders and Black Lives Matter T-shirts. Another group identified itself as the “John Brown Group” and carried AR-15-style guns.

Many organizations such as Puente, the One Arizona coalition, Mi Familia Vota, and Progressive Democrats of America were present.

They chanted anti-Trump and anti-fascism slogans as they gathered in front of the theater.

Others used song to make their point.

Congregation members from the Unitarian Universalist Church broke up shouting and chanting, leading the crowd in the gospel song This Little Light of Mine.

“I don’t know why they keep shouting ‘USA.’ We just keep shouting it back. We believe in the same country, just not the direction they are going in,” said Anne Schneider, the former dean of the College of Public Programs at Arizona State University.

Individuals gathered, too

Melanie French wasn’t part of an organized protest group but decided to show up with her family and hold a handmade sign with an image of the state of Arizona that said, “Mr. Hate Leave My State.”

The 44-year-old registered nurse from Ahwatukee Foothills stood in the 106-degree heat near the edge of where protesters gathered north of the convention center and vowed to stay “until I run out of water or run out of steam.”

As she stood holding her sign, a steady stream of protesters made their way onto Second Street, which had been blocked off by police south of Van Buren Street.

Earlier in the afternoon, a number of individual protesters gathered across the street from the convention center on Second Street just south of Monroe. Phoenix police closed Second Street to traffic, and the long line of people waiting to enter the convention center snaked all the way down Second Street and then east along Washington Street.

Protesters march toward the Phoenix Convention Center on Aug. 22, 2017, where President Donald Trump is holding a rally. (Photo: Michael Chow/The Republic)

Cathy Harvard of Phoenix held a handmade sign that said, “Impeach.” The 58-year-old receptionist said this was the first Trump event that she protested, and felt strongly she needed to be outside the convention center to speak her mind. She left work at 1 p.m. to get to a spot outside the convention center.

“I do not like that man. He does not belong in the White House,” she said. “He needs to be impeached. He needs to go.”

Standing in the shade across from the convention center, she wiped her brow with a washcloth. She wasn’t finished with her complaints.

“He shouldn’t even be in Arizona. He’s out having a campaign rally. Like someone is going to vote for him in 2020?”

Pro-Trump bikers, supporters arrive

A group calling itself Bikers for Trump gathered near the Burton Barr Central Library earlier on Tuesday. Their goal was to ensure that the marches outside the rally remained peaceful, said Jim Williams, known as “Reverend Jim” to his fellow riders.

“These people have a right to go in and hear what the president has to say,” Williams said.

Bikers for Trump is a loose-knit group — some riders who showed up said they had never rode with them before. Williams said he has ridden with Bikers USA — United for Sovereign America — for about a decade.

After riding from the downtown library, about 50 members of the group marched to the corner of Second and Monroe streets, where they were met with words of thanks by rally attendees.

Holding a yellow “tea party” “Don’t Tread On Me” flag, Retta Buntin of Gold Canyon said she came out to “support the president.”

“He’s more concerned with people than with politics,” Buntin said.

David Harris, her high-school friend, who was holding the other end of the tea-party flag, joined in.

“I don’t remember any time in our lives when the president was so available to his base,” Harris said.By 5:30 p.m., hundreds, some who brought young children, were still waiting in line to enter into the

convention center.

Pro-Jewish supporters gather at Capitol

Farther west at the Arizona Capitol, hundreds of people from Arizona’s Jewish community and their allies gathered on the lawn late Tuesday afternoon to denounce what they described as a startling resurgence in neo-Nazism and racism around the country.

Rabbis and Jewish political leaders from the Valley led the rally. Recounting the horrors of the Holocaust that killed more than 6 million Jews, they demanded Trump unequivocally reject white-supremacist groups.

Sarah Kader, of the Arizona Jewish Lawyers Association, told the story of her grandmother, who survived being tortured, beaten and starved in the Auschwitz concentration camp.

“I saw the number tattooed on her arm by the Nazis,” Kader said.

After the rally, hundreds of people marched toward downtown Phoenix to join the other protests.

Possible Arpaio pardon draws criticism

Earlier Tuesday afternoon, the non-profit Mi Familia Vota hosted a news conference outside St. Mary’s Basilica to denounce Trump’s visit to Phoenix and his potential to pardon former Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio.

Various organizations who condemn Trump’s possible pardon came together to speak out against him.

“We are here to march together in unity to call to what has been, for a very long time, in our faces: plain and uncovered racism. We are here to call it out,” Tucson Mayor Regina Romero said.

A White House spokeswoman said later in the day that Trump would not issue a pardon Tuesday. But during his speech, the president hinted that he would pardon Arpaio at a future date.

Outside the convention center, people shared the news with each other.

Moments after word began to spread of a possible pardon, John Schnautz of Phoenix said it would only inflame the situation, if not Tuesday, then when it officially happens.

“It’s like The Apprentice. It’s the cliffhanger!” he said, referring to the TV show made popular by Trump. “That’s what we’re doing here. He had the nerve to do this tonight in Phoenix, Arizona, with all we’ve got going on.”